Three elderly people in Pittsburgh, all of whom had heart problems, died suddenly after receiving swine flu shots. All had gotten their shots at the same clinic. All had had shots from the same batch of vaccine. And, reported the Pittsburgh Press, that same batch of vaccine had been delivered to twelve other clinics in Allegheny County as well as to clinics in twenty cities across the country.The media swarmed to the Pittsburgh clinic, and the next day, October 12, Dr. Cyril Wecht, the Allegheny County coroner, fanned the flames of fear, going before CBS television cameras and saying that a bad batch of vaccine “is definitely a possibility that must be considered.”Allegheny County suspended its swine flu campaign. And so did nine states. The press began a national body count.Some newspapers went over the top. The New York Post, for example, ran a story on October 14 headlined “The Scene at the Pennsylvania Death Clinic” that spoke of a seventy-five-year-old woman who “winced at the sting of the hypodermic,” then had “taken a few feeble steps and dropped dead.” On October 25, the paper suggested that Carlo Gambino, the mobster, had been killed by the Mafia using a swine flu shot as the deadly weapon.As reports of the death toll proliferated, Dr. David Sencer, at the Centers for Disease Control, tried to stem the rising tide of fear. He held a press conference on the evening of October 12, saying that there was no evidence that the vaccine was at fault. The deaths were most likely only coincidentally associated with the vaccination. But the government would, of course, investigate. “We are setting up a program to look into this in great depth to reassure everyone that this is not a problem due to the vaccine but just some of the inherent problems of providing preventative services to large numbers of people, particularly those who are elderly and have underlying health problems.”It was the start of a tug-of-war between the Centers for Disease Control and the Pennsylvania coroner.The next day, October 13, Wecht announced that autopsies on two of the three people had shown that they had died of heart problems. But, he said, the vaccine may have spurred those deaths. “We know that substances injected into the vascular system directly produce a more exaggerated and certainly a more rapid reaction than when those same substances are injected into the body fat or muscle mass.”The Centers for Disease Control countered with its own figures on the likelihood of coincidental deaths, noting that among people aged seventy to seventy-four, there are 10 to 12 deaths per 100,000 people per day. So, of course, when you immunize people of that age, some, by chance, would die the same day. But that does not mean they died because they were immunized.
Friday, May 17, 2024
Three elderly people in Pittsburgh, all of whom had heart problems, died suddenly after receiving swine flu shots.
History
In Ancient Egypt, Blue (irtyu) was colour of heavens and hence represented universe. Many temples, sarcophagi and burial vaults have a deep blue roof speckled with tiny yellow stars.
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) April 15, 2024
Blue is also colour of water and hence colour of Nile and primeval waters of chaos (Nun). As a… pic.twitter.com/2Wv3JIiSw9
An Insight
“No pleasure is worth giving up for the sake of two more years in a geriatric home in Weston-super-Mare.”
— Mark W. (@DurhamWASP) April 16, 2024
Sir Kingsley Amis, born 16th April 1922 pic.twitter.com/9HsMWEW2H8
I see wonderful things
It’s another wild night out there. Candle flame dancing, shutters rattling and the wind roaring in the chimneys. pic.twitter.com/rMkN83ZBJG
— Gwydir Castle (@JudyCorbett) April 15, 2024
Offbeat Humor
Translated: people should go to grad school because we require feudal labor for tenured faculty. We can’t downsize PhD programs—even though there are no professor jobs—because we maintain class privileges for “real” profs by offloading teaching duties onto exploited PhD students. https://t.co/AYXU0ujlG0
— Tyler Austin Harper (@Tyler_A_Harper) April 18, 2024
Data Talks
How long is your tax code on a scale from Switzerland to America?
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) April 16, 2024
🧵 pic.twitter.com/wbeYMXnLzy
Thursday, May 16, 2024
Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few
I find myself just in the same situation of mind you describe as your own, heartily wishing the good, that is the quiet of my country, and hoping a total end of all the unhappy divisions of mankind by party-spirit, which at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
Party is the madness of many, for the gain of a few.
Planning in a chaotic, dynamic and uncertain environment with incomplete information.
At an American Legion convention in a Philadelphia hotel a group of people fell ill and twenty-six died of a mysterious disease. It seemed to be a respiratory disease. It looked, in fact, like the flu, and some doctors said publicly that the men might have died from swine flu. For four days, while television stations showed funerals of the Legionnaires and the new disease made headlines, it seemed that the predicted flu epidemic had begun.On August 5, the Centers for Disease Control completed its laboratory studies of the disease. Whatever was sickening these men, the data showed, it was not swine flu. (Later, the culprit turned out be a hitherto unknown bacterium that had gotten into the hotel’s air-conditioning system and was pumped throughout the building.) But even though Legionnaires’ disease, as the illness became known, was not swine flu, the message was not lost on Congress: if it had been swine flu instead, the criticisms of Congress would have been withering and the ensuing panic impossible to counter with arguments about liability insurance. If it turned out that the American people were denied a vaccine because Congress refused to give legal protection to the vaccine makers, it could be a political nightmare. So Congress acted quickly, passing a “tort claims bill” that required that any claims arising from the swine flu vaccine be filed against the federal government. The bill, which came before the Senate on August 10, was rushed through without hearings or a committee report. The next day, it went to the House of Representatives, where it passed even though many members had not seen the legislation.Senator Harrison A. Williams, Jr., of New Jersey, said that the law broke new ground. “This is pioneering, in a sense,” he said. But, he added, “it is in response to an emergency.”In the House of Representatives, Paul G. Rogers of Florida urged Congress to step in to help the vaccine makers. The federal government, he explained, has “asked the drug companies to produce this vaccine. We have told them how to do it. We have told them the dosage we want, what strength. We gave them the specifications because we are the only buyers, the Government of the United States. This is not the usual process of going out and selling.” But “if someone is hurt, we think people ought to have a remedy.”On August 12, President Ford signed a bill into law committing the federal government to insuring the swine flu vaccine makers against claims that their product injured people.A Gallup poll taken on August 31 found that 95 percent of Americans had heard of the swine flu vaccination program and that 53 percent planned to take part. Although officials at the Centers for Disease Control were disappointed—they were aiming for 95 percent participation—the poll nonetheless showed that the message had gotten through. An ominous flu could be on its way, a repeat of 1918’s epidemic, and the government was going to sponsor an unprecedented immunization program to protect Americans.The first Americans were immunized on October 1. Ten days later, the first deaths occurred.
History
This is the Teotihuacan pyramid of the Sun before the excavations at the beginning of the XX century vs now. A simple hill covered by bushes and trees. pic.twitter.com/td2nl7kpv8
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 16, 2024
An Insight
Hells yeah pic.twitter.com/fPwYsba1yG
— James Pethokoukis ⏩️⤴️ (@JimPethokoukis) April 15, 2024
I see wonderful things
Argentinosaurus - the World's Biggest Dinosaur :
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) April 15, 2024
When it was discovered in Argentina in 1987, Argentinosaurus, the world's biggest dinosaur, shook the world of paleontology to its foundations.
Ever since its discovery, paleontologists have argued about the length and weight of… https://t.co/3g37WxUxlt
Offbeat Humor
dudes will run statistical analysis on the weight of their chipotle order in person vs. online instead of going to therapy pic.twitter.com/b7wAi26sTd
— gaut is doing nothing (@0xgaut) April 18, 2024
Data Talks
It’s important to lay out exactly the chain of events here:
— Logan Dobson (@LoganDobson) April 15, 2024
1) Joe Biden abandons Bagram Air Force Base
2) Al-Logari walks out of Bagram
3) Al-Logari suicide bombs Abbey gate, killing 13 Americans
4) in retaliation, Joe Biden drone strikes some aid workers and 10 children https://t.co/pQRRD1jRPV
Let others waster their commercial life blood trying to coercively buy influence
At the end of April, the Saudi newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, reported from sources described as being well-informed in Damascus, stating that Iran has been pressuring the Syrian regime government to recover its debts since the latest visit made by Iranian President, Ebrahim Raisi, to Damascus in May 2023.The sources added that Iran is pressuring the regime to recover debts amounting to 50 billion US dollars by obtaining investment projects, especially after the two sides signed a “Memorandum of Understanding for Strategic Cooperation” during Raisi’s last visit.Tehran insists on implementing the numerous agreements signed between the two countries in order to repay the debts, according to the sources.
[snip]Qaddour believes that Tehran feels aggrieved in Syria, as its presence there is deemed the most failed project it has led in foreign policy, aimed at protecting the regime’s rule without receiving anything in return, according to his expression.The researcher also noted that Iran is still forced to provide more in Syria, without signs of getting something in return, making it an unproductive and negative economic investment.Qaddour pointed to a dispute between the Syrian regime and Iran that has begun to surface, highlighted by Iranian pressures for larger investments on one hand, and unprecedented criticisms by regime loyalists regarding the Iranian presence in Syria.[snip]espite multiple commercial failures, Iran continues to strive to increase trade for various purposes, most notably to recover as much debt as possible and because of the importance of this exchange for its soft power needs, which are essential for developing long-term influence and economic relationships.According to the study, after 2015, Iran sought to establish itself in all the main sectors in Syria; despite its significant efforts in this area, the actual success and level of its control vary from one sector to another, amidst ongoing and continual Iranian attempts to increase its positioning in each one individually.The study indicated that, generally, a common characteristic distinctively marks Iranian economic directions in Syria, which is the success in concluding agreements but failing to materialize them, due to three main factors: Russian competition, the impact of western sanctions, and Syria’s weak economy.
1) Let other people fight their own wars. Stay away from them and from nation building.2) There is no substitute for enlightened self interest expressed in free markets based on consent. Don't waste money trying to buy influence and power in dysfunctional countries. It doesn't work and you lose your money. At best.
You want the truth? Assume the opposite of what is reported.
It’s possible, then—perhaps even likely—that the IDF has achieved a civilian-to-combatant casualty ratio of around 1.5-1, an unheard-of level of precision and civilian protection in urban warfare.
If that’s the case, it should cause the Biden administration to rethink its hypercritical posture toward Israel. Except—and here’s the bad news—the Biden administration already knew this information. Again: The missing 11,000 or so casualties were largely based, according to Hamas, on media reporting. In other words, rumor—not unidentified corpses. This was not a secret. The Biden administration and the UN were both well aware of Hamas’s method of fabrication. Which means President Biden has been knowingly using false numbers to crucify Israel in the court of public opinion and to justify withholding weapons from our ally during wartime.
Wednesday, May 15, 2024
"Let Newton be!" and all was light.
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
Panic as the basis of lawmaking
Even in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which wanted to indemnify the companies, there was dissension in the ranks. One staff member, who worked for Cooper, the head of that department, told Neustadt and Fineberg why he and others objected to having the government rather than the vaccine makers be held liable for vaccine-related injuries: “Behind these arguments for indemnification, there were a number of assumptions which were untested and unsupported by facts. For one, it was contended that if the manufacturers were not indemnified, they would all stop making vaccine. But the number of companies in this business had been diminishing for a long time for reasons totally unrelated to liability. We just couldn’t buy this—that continued liability would drive them out. And then there were other unsupported assumptions, just sort of out there, loping across the plains.”As the vaccine makers met repeatedly with lawyers for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, they became increasingly frustrated. One company lawyer explained: “We would open every meeting with a heartfelt refrain for the HEW lawyers: ‘We need legislative relief. Nothing short of that is going to do it. Chairman Rogers [Paul G. Rogers, chairman of the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment] is willing to put it in a bill. We need legislative relief.’ That was our first paragraph at every session. It fell on absolutely deaf ears.”Inevitably, vaccine production was delayed.On May 21, a leading vaccine maker, Merrell National, told the chief lawyer for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare that the company would not provide the swine flu vaccine unless the federal government provided indemnification. On June 10, the insurers for Parke-Davis and for Merrell National told the companies that their liability coverage for the swine flu vaccine would expire on July 1. The only solution would be for Congress to pass a law requiring the federal government to insure the vaccine makers.On July 15, Merrell said it would be stopping its vaccine production entirely and that it would not even purchase eggs after July 20.Congress held hearings. The insurance companies did not budge. They simply could not assume the risk for the vaccine makers, they insisted.The vaccine manufacturers, in the meantime, were making the swine flu vaccine in bulk but were not putting it in vials so it could be distributed. It “would take weeks to package the vaccine, delaying even further the start of an immunization campaign that now was beginning to seem hopelessly mired down.The impasse lasted until August 1, when a swine flu scare spurred Congress to act.At an American Legion convention in a Philadelphia hotel a group of people fell ill and twenty-six died of a mysterious disease. It seemed to be a respiratory disease. It looked, in fact, like the flu, and some doctors said publicly that the men might have died from swine flu. For four days, while television stations showed funerals of the Legionnaires and the new disease made headlines, it seemed that the predicted flu epidemic had begun.
Fishermen at Sea, 1796 by Joseph Mallord William Turner
The work measures 36 by 48.125 inches (91.44 cm × 122.24 cm) and is in oils. Fisherman at Sea depicts a moonlit view of fishermen on rough seas near the Isle of Wight, and is a work of marine art. It juxtaposes the fragility of human life, represented by the small boat with its flickering lamp, and the sublime power of nature, represented by the dark clouded sky, the wide sea, and the threatening rocks in the background. The cold light of the Moon at night contrasts with the warmer glow of the fishermen's lantern. The chalk formations on the left of the work were traditionally thought to be the Needles on the western tip of the island; however, this has been contested, with some scholars suggesting that the chalk cliffs are instead the ones at the nearby Freshwater Bay.The work shows strong influence from the work of artists such as Claude Joseph Vernet, Philip James de Loutherbourg, and the intimate nocturnal scenes of Joseph Wright of Derby, especially in its handling of light and shadow.
History
Leonardo da Vinci watches a cat. And draws it (and friends) over and over. Today was his day. pic.twitter.com/6DMVLxz2xC
— Dr. Peter Paul Rubens (@PP_Rubens) April 15, 2024
An Insight
substituting high cost, low availability wind & solar that cannot function as baseline power for low cost, high availability fossil fuels that can is a poverty trap
— el gato malo (@boriquagato) April 16, 2024
the link between power use and prosperity is profound
perhaps you mean well, but you're peddling poison as cure https://t.co/x7U9VhSj7h pic.twitter.com/IcbWltX5vE
I see wonderful things
Sunrise on Mars, taken by NASA's Opportunity rover ☀ pic.twitter.com/KWFhowkno1
— Curiosity (@MAstronomers) April 16, 2024
Offbeat Humor
Gas stations in Atlanta are among the most dangerous places on Earth
— Phil Holloway ✈️ (@PhilHollowayEsq) April 17, 2024
pic.twitter.com/3MEAxglgUw
Data Talks
Some of my critics say that the global decline of suicide over the past 20 years contradicts my claims. When you mix everyone everywhere, it looks that way.
— Jonathan Haidt (@JonHaidt) April 16, 2024
When you break groups out by age and sex, it supports my claims. Something changed in early 2010s:… pic.twitter.com/MnfrG9HfMM
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
History
“A staggering 200,000 people, it has been calculated, met a violent death in the Colosseum alone, and there were similar, smaller, arenas in every major city of the Empire.”
— ShadowsOfConstantinople (@RomeInTheEast) April 16, 2024
That’s pretty horrific!
Symmachus, an Urban Prefect of Rome in the Fourth Century, wrote to Emperor… pic.twitter.com/XIUyO00uxf
An Insight
she's trauma-signalling. it's phoney. this is an example of postmodern performativity x the feminized therapy culture. it's a way for narcissists to solicit attention ("care") from their "allies." she wasn't upset about covid, she was bored at home & attention-deprived.
— ukrainian noble, upstanding and right-thinking (@doukhobour) April 16, 2024
I see wonderful things
The arms of an octopus used by a reader/owner of this manuscript to mark parts they thought were important or of interest
— Medieval Military Medicine (@MedMilMedicine) April 16, 2024
- 2nd half of the 14th century, Bancroft Library, BANC MS UCB 085 pic.twitter.com/dXTrqcM7q8
Offbeat Humor
Cybertruck To Come With Deployable Scoop For Removing Climate Change Protesters From Roadway https://t.co/UAxf55XVgG pic.twitter.com/h59g9F2mNb
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) April 16, 2024
Data Talks
I'm all for teaching reading better but I'm pretty sure the reason kids don't read for pleasure any more is just "screens". Small decline when kids get the web, massive decline when they get phones/social media. https://t.co/TBc0cSXFin pic.twitter.com/wgg2S46uw5
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) April 15, 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024
It is not my habit to read books their putative authors haven't read.
Books their authors didn't write bought in bulk with other people's money to end up in landfills is maybe the most Washington thing ever.This is where I endorse George Will's comment (lightly paraphrased) about a political memoir from many years ago that he critiqued without having read: "It is not my habit to read books their putative authors haven't read."
History
A 1600 CE, Tea-bowl (White Satsuma Ware) was mended by Master Potter 'Honami Koetsu' (1558-1637 CE). Later, in late 17th Century CE, this Tea-bowl undergoes the practice of Kintsugi, during Edo Period (1603-1868 CE).
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) April 15, 2024
Some four or five centuries ago in Japan, a lavish technique… pic.twitter.com/Ctqw8o4Kq6
An Insight
These two stories were published on the same day a few weeks ago 🥴https://t.co/262uDBIJZbhttps://t.co/262uDBIJZb
— Not the Bee (@Not_the_Bee) April 15, 2024
I see wonderful things
In 1904, a Swedish sailor named Carl Emil Pettersson shipwrecked on an island in Papua New Guinea that was inhabited by what he believed to be a cannibalistic tribe.
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful) April 15, 2024
He was carried to their king, whose daughter fell in love with him. He eventually married the king's daughter… pic.twitter.com/itEGdwY0qX
Offbeat Humor
That spring sunshine just hits different ☀️😎 pic.twitter.com/msCfcaWmX1
— Very Finnish Problems (@VFinnishProbs) April 16, 2024
The words change but the fear and the aversion always remain the same.
It strikes me, however, that the slandering of evangelical Christians is more than a campaign strategy or proof of secularism’s triumph. Stripped of its academic jargon and pretense, it is a fashionable but insidious bigotry that seeks to marginalize and disqualify from our civic discourse tens of millions of Americans who take their faith seriously.
So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy towards people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations. - Barack Obama, fundraiser 2008.
You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. - Hillary Clinton, fundraiser, 2016.
Data Talks
Who survived to have a long life in the past?
— LiorLefineder (@lefineder) April 27, 2024
Not the wealthy or nobility.
“Post-Mortem” property examinations of very wealthy English “Royal tenants” and genealogies of English peers don't show much longer life expectancy than parish data.🧵 pic.twitter.com/TyLa0A13KS
Doing the research job journalists refuse to do. It took seven seconds.
What was the nature of the original reform?When did it occur?What were the measures of success?What have been the outcomes to date?
Have there been unintended consequences?
What are the changes being proposed?
What was the nature of the original reform? - Paragraph 1: "A program allowing people in British Columbia to possess small amounts of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, without fear of criminal charges." Lacks specificity. What emerges is that the original reform allowed for public use of drugs in addition to possession.
When did it occur? - Paragraph 10: "The decriminalization of the possession of small amounts of drugs was a three-year exemption that started in January 2023." We have to wait all the way to paragraph 10 to discover that this was to have been a three year experiment but that the consequences have been so negative that they are intervening at the seventeen month mark of the thirty-six month trial.What were the measures of success? - Paragraph 5: "The goals of decriminalizing possession were to enable police officers to focus their time on large drug distributors rather than users and encourage users to be open to treatment." And that is all that is said. There is no information about whether there was an increase in arrests of large drug distributors nor whether there was an increase in users seeking treatment. A curious silence suggesting that neither outcome was achieved.What have been the outcomes to date? - Paragraph 4: "The province’s coroner estimated that there were a record 2,511 toxic drug deaths last year. Drug overdoses from toxic substances kill more people ages 10 to 59 than homicides, suicides, accidents and natural diseases combined in British Columbia, according to the provincial coroner’s office." See below. They expected deaths to decline under the new policy and they instead rose 11%.
Have there been unintended consequences? Paragraph 11: "but public use appears to have spread beyond the neighborhoods where it was most common before decriminalization." The article does not discuss whether decriminalized drugs has led to increased crime. Yet another curious omission.
What are the changes being proposed? - Paragraph 1: "At the request of the province and after a public backlash, people in British Columbia are no longer permitted to use drugs in public places."
British Columbia has a well established drug problem manifested in drug overdose deaths and public nuisance crimes. Under the auspices of harm reduction, the government passed legislation seventeen months ago removing penalties for owning and public use of small amounts of drugs. Public drug usage spread geographically and the number of drug overdose deaths set new records.Because of the spread of public use of drugs and because of the rise in drug overdose deaths, the government has modified the three year experiment at the halfway point by making it illegal to use drugs in public. Drug ownership and private use of drugs remains legal.
Mr. Mullins also disputed that public drug use had become a substantial problem in British Columbia since decriminalization.“There is no data or evidence that there’s any actual danger to people,” he said. “So it’s all about feelings and these feelings are being whipped up by conservative politicians.”
The number of deaths being investigated by the BC Coroners Service in 2022 is the second-largest total ever in a calendar year, and only 34 fewer than the 2,306 deaths reported to the agency in 2021. Toxic drugs were responsible for an average of 189 deaths per month in 2022, or 6.2 lost lives each and every day.
2021 - 2,3062022 - 2,2722023 - 2,511
Sunday, May 12, 2024
History
There are significant materials indicating the early presence in Athens of northern Pontic peoples labelled “Scythians” by Greeks. The image of “Scythian archers” features regularly in Attic and Athenian art and drama beginning in the sixth century. The first clear reference to… pic.twitter.com/btSe2eJwR2
— Archaeo - Histories (@archeohistories) April 12, 2024
An Insight
For raising kids, suburban U.S. is great. But before and after, the urban flat and public transportation are pretty great. We went back to NYC the month my youngest graduated high school. https://t.co/4SzZrhrF1r
— Critical Bureaucracy Theory (@aphofer) April 15, 2024
I see wonderful things
Butterflies will sometimes land on a Caiman and drink its salty, crocodile tears to in order to survive. This helps the Caiman to feel both less sad and more fabulous. pic.twitter.com/EW6eDk0iMT
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 16, 2024
Offbeat Humor
The importance of punctuation
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 12, 2024
(Commas save lives) pic.twitter.com/g8yBtqJbe0
Data Talks
This is how Washington was funded in 2023 (all taxes included, with each group's average combined rate embedded in the bars).
— Brian Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 (@Brian_Riedl) April 15, 2024
This is what a very progressive tax system looks like. pic.twitter.com/bpnFoNttAf
Saturday, May 11, 2024
History
Drawings of whales in the log of the ship Indian Chief kept by Thomas R. Bloomfield (1842–1844). pic.twitter.com/kqUxZQcc7j
— Archaeology & Art (@archaeologyart) April 12, 2024
An Insight
the thing about this debate that never stops being funny is it is essentially an english-speaking indictment of the entire spanish language, framed as a matter of justice for spanish-speaking people, who continue to not even know that we’re having this conversation https://t.co/gzhE0hthBa
— Mike Solana (@micsolana) April 12, 2024
I see wonderful things
London's Frameless is the ultimate immersive art experience. With 42 masterpieces in 4 different galleries, it's the largest permanent multi-sensory experience in the UK.pic.twitter.com/YFIrdMqQTA
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 16, 2024
Offbeat Humor
If I ever win the lottery I won't tell anyone but there will be signs. pic.twitter.com/raf4sr1D9a
— Michael McGill 💻 🏛 (@mcgillmd921) April 11, 2024
Data Talks
this is all the more poignant as nearly all the inflation of the prior 15 years was pre 2014. electricity prices had been nearly flat for 6 years before this sudden spike.
— el gato malo (@boriquagato) April 12, 2024
this was all policy driven and entirely avoidable. https://t.co/KeSQgIkScS
Friday, May 10, 2024
An Insight
“Future generations will wonder in bemused amazement that the early 21st century's developed world went into hysterical panic over a globally averaged temperature increase of a few tenths of a degree, and, on the basis of gross exaggerations of highly uncertain computer…
— Chris Martz (@ChrisMartzWX) April 11, 2024
I see wonderful things
They made his day
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 12, 2024
pic.twitter.com/26NmqURyGK
Offbeat Humor
Puritan pedagogy was unparalleled pic.twitter.com/Hdlz9zsAb5
— Abraham Ash (@Historycourses) April 11, 2024
Data Talks
The average evangelical is more likely to attend church weekly than an evangelical in the 1970s.
— Ryan Burge 📊 (@ryanburge) April 12, 2024
For both mainline and Black Protestants, church attendance is about the same today as 1972.
For Catholics, ~50% were Mass attenders in 1972.
25% attend weekly now. pic.twitter.com/nKa8fxHiY3
A Small Dutch Ship Riding Out A Storm by Willem van de Velde the Younger (Dutch, 1633-1707)
Thursday, May 9, 2024
History
The risen Christ appears to an astonished disciple in this painted Romanesque capital on a column at Church of St Austremoine d’Issoire, France. You can also see the Heavenly Jerusalem, far L. The church dates back to the 12C, and was restored in the 19Chttps://t.co/Au8zmgHy5f pic.twitter.com/qvv4v6iQE4
— Journal of Art in Society (@artinsociety) April 12, 2024
An Insight
When someone asks why is AI not changing many things yet, I point to Amara’s Law: “We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run.”
— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) April 11, 2024
Social systems change slower than technological systems. But signs are appearing.
I see wonderful things
The mesmering effect of a bubble full of smoke floating over water, then popping (color edit by the author).
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) April 12, 2024
[📹 Austin Lawrence]pic.twitter.com/Xz5sW3yqCT
Data Talks
The seasonality of youth suicides suggests the school experience drives kids to kill themselves.
— Crémieux (@cremieuxrecueil) April 11, 2024
One potential cause is bullying.
A way to indicate that is searches: during summer, there are fewer Google searches related to bullying, and the same thing happened during lockdown. https://t.co/kP6COVj4Wd pic.twitter.com/AdLJWnvbVA
Belisha Beacons
“Jimmy Lorrimer was one of Luke’s oldest friends. As a matter of course, Luke stayed with Jimmy as soon as he got to London. It was with Jimmy that he sallied forth on the evening of his arrival in search of amusement. It was Jimmy’s coffee that he drank with an aching head the morning after, and it was Jimmy’s voice that went unanswered while he read twice over a small insignificant paragraph in the morning paper.“Sorry, Jimmy,” he said, coming to himself with a start.“What were you absorbed in—the political situation?”Luke grinned.“No fear. No, it’s rather queer—old pussy I travelled up with in the train yesterday got run over.”“Probably trusted to a Belisha Beacon,” said Jimmy. “How do you know it’s her?”“Of course, it mayn’t be. But it’s the same name—Pinkerton—she was knocked down and killed by a car as she was crossing Whitehall. The car didn’t stop.”“Nasty business,” said Jimmy.“Yes, poor old bean. I’m sorry. She reminded me of my Aunt Mildred.”
Only the political class breeding itself
Courage is always missing in politicians. It is like saying basketball players aren’t normally short. It isn’t a useful attribute. To be morally courageous is to say something different, which reduces your chances of winning an election. Courage is in a funny way more common in an old-fashioned sort of enlightened dictatorship than it is in a democracy. However, there is another factor. My generation has been catastrophic. I was born in 1948 so I am more or less the same age as George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Gerhard Schröder, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – a pretty crappy generation, when you come to think of it, and many names could be added. It is a generation that grew up in the 1960s in Western Europe or in America, in a world of no hard choices, neither economic nor political. There were no wars they had to fight. They did not have to fight in the Vietnam War. They grew up believing that no matter what choice they made, there would be no disastrous consequences. The result is that whatever the differences of appearance, style and personality, these are people for whom making an unpopular choice is very hard.[snip]We have had six, seven generations of leaders who came to power exclusively by political manoeuvring, which is historically very unusual. It’s like inbreeding: there are no external inputs, no new kinds of people, only the political class breeding itself.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Is the philanthropy aligned with the need?
Subsidizing solutions which make a small problem bigger
Now, some researchers warn that we are in danger of overdoing it. Mental health awareness campaigns, they argue, help some young people identify disorders that badly need treatment — but they have a negative effect on others, leading them to over-interpret their symptoms and see themselves as more troubled than they are.The researchers point to unexpected results in trials of school-based mental health interventions in the United Kingdom and Australia: Students who underwent training in the basics of mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy and dialectical behavior therapy did not emerge healthier than peers who did not participate, and some were worse off, at least for a while.And new research from the United States shows that among young people, “self-labeling” as having depression or anxiety is associated with poor coping skills, like avoidance or rumination.In a paper published last year, two research psychologists at the University of Oxford, Lucy Foulkes and Jack Andrews, coined the term “prevalence inflation” — driven by the reporting of mild or transient symptoms as mental health disorders — and suggested that awareness campaigns were contributing to it.“It’s creating this message that teenagers are vulnerable, they’re likely to have problems, and the solution is to outsource them to a professional,” said Dr. Foulkes, a Prudence Trust Research Fellow in Oxford’s department of experimental psychology, who has written two books on mental health and adolescence.Until high-quality research has clarified these unexpected negative effects, they argue, school systems should proceed cautiously with large-scale mental health interventions.“It’s not that we need to go back to square one, but it’s that we need to press pause and reroute potentially,” Dr. Foulkes said. “It’s possible that something very well-intended has overshot a bit and needs to be brought back in.”
The results were disappointing. The authors reported “no support for our hypothesis” that mindfulness training would improve students’ mental health. In fact, students at highest risk for mental health problems did somewhat worse after receiving the training, the authors concluded.But by the end of the eight-year project, “mindfulness is already embedded in a lot of schools, and there are already organizations making money from selling this program to schools,” said Dr. Foulkes, who had assisted on the study as a postdoctoral research associate. “And it’s very difficult to get the scientific message out there.”
History
Among the most visible reminders of Rome's storied hegemony are its aqueducts.
— ThinkingWest (@thinkingwest) April 12, 2024
These engineering marvels channeled the lifeblood of civilization for near a millennia.
Here’s how they worked…🧵 pic.twitter.com/7H5MVICwXv
An Insight
We have to remember that what we observe is not nature herself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.
— Physics In History (@PhysInHistory) April 12, 2024
- Werner Heisenberg pic.twitter.com/LSQBrWuMhr
I see wonderful things
The Sweet Track is a recreation of a 6000 year old Neolithic timber walkway in Somerset. The original was discovered in 1970.
— ArchaeoHistories (@histories_arch) April 12, 2024
Built to provide a dry path across the marshy ground, it's one of the world's oldest roads and Britain's oldest wooden walkway.#archaeohistories pic.twitter.com/TIvbzcvCJv